Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday he was bent on writing "a new chapter" for the Department of Water and Power with the help of its new leader Marcie Edwards - a task that goes beyond cleaning up its woebegone billing system, he said. In electing him mayor, "Los Angeles voters really gave me a mandate to reform the DWP," Garcetti told a roomful of business leaders and reporters Tuesday. Even his own father - onetime Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti - had complained to him about being on hold with the agency for more than 40 minutes, the mayor said.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's chief of staff ended speculation Monday about her immediate political plans, saying through a spokesman she will not file a challenge to City Councilman Jose Huizar. Ana Guerrero, who has advised Garcetti since his days as a councilman, had been talked up in City Hall circles as a potential challenger to Huizar even though she and her family live in La Crescenta -- outside city limits. "Ana will not be a candidate" for Huizar's seat, said Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman in an email.

Acknowledging concerns in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings last year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday that officials have taken every precaution to ensure that the city's marathon is safe and secure. Garcetti, who was on hand at Dodger Stadium for the kickoff of the 29th annual marathon, told KTLA that the world had changed since the Boston bombings -- in which three people were killed and dozens injured -- but that city agencies and the police department had put all necessary resources into Sunday's event to make certain there would be no problems.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti opened the state's Democratic convention on Saturday with a tribute to the party's dominance in California, saying it has ensured progress on climate change, immigration, public transit and civil rights. Garcetti ran down a list of laws enacted on Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's watch, including one that increases the minimum wage and another that grants driver's licenses to immigrants in the country without documentation. “While Washington dithers, here in California Democrats get things done,” Garcetti told Democrats gathered at the L.A. Convention Center.

I'm guessing that if you call 911 to report a fire in Los Angeles, you probably wouldn't want me showing up with a hose and a helmet. But just in case I had an untapped aptitude for putting out blazes, I decided to try my hand at the sample test questions posted for would-be firefighters on a city website. The LAFD could always use a few more good men and women, after all. The rank and file may be top notch, but in the upper echelons, it's been one white-hot controversy after another regarding the 911 system and misleading claims about response times.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford paid a visit to L.A. City Hall, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was nowhere to be found. Not because he was avoiding Ford, who got into a political pinch back home after admitting to crack cocaine use, but because Garcetti was in Mexico on a business trip. "Every city I go to, I go to City Hall," Ford said Monday, surrounded by his handlers on the steps of City Hall. "I just pop in to say hi. " Surprised City Hall security personnel escorted Ford and his entourage to Garcetti's office but were soon turned away.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show Monday to promote his hometown, but ended up getting stacked up against Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Ford -- who gained international fame last year after media reports of public drunkenness and his admission to smoking crack cocaine -- had paid a visit to L.A. City Hall earlier Monday, but Garcetti, in Mexico on a business trip, was nowhere to be found. Ford told reporters that he makes it a point to visit the city halls of places he visits to "pop in and say hi. " Despite the Toronto City Council stripping him of official powers, Ford has refused to step down and announced in January that he would seek reelection in the fall.

MEXICO CITY - When historians write about 21st century Los Angeles, they'll probably observe that Eric Garcetti was the second Spanish-speaking L.A. mayor in a row to make an official visit to the Mexican capital. They may also note how trips such as his trade mission this week reflected the increasingly intimate cultural and economic ties between Los Angeles and its sister megalopolis to the south. But some of the subtleties of the experience may be lost to posterity if it is not also noted that Garcetti, like his predecessor, Antonio Villaraigosa, speaks a version of the language that, for lack of a more scientific term, might be called Funky American Business Spanish.

Local transportation officials Thursday are to accept a $670-million federal grant for a downtown rail project designed to seamlessly connect three of Los Angeles County's furthest-reaching light-rail lines. When the Downtown Regional Connector opens, slated for 2020, the Metro Blue, Gold and Expo lines will all run between the 7th/Metro stop and Union Station. Passengers will be able to travel from Long Beach to Pasadena, or East Los Angeles to Santa Monica, without changing trains.

Mayor Eric Garcetti is planning to travel next month to Mexico City on the first of what he says will be many international trade missions to promote Los Angeles . Garcetti met Tuesday in his City Hall office with a delegation of Mexico City officials to lay groundwork for his four-day visit, scheduled to start March 2. Traveling with Garcetti will be top managers of the city's harbor and airport departments, along...